Today Post::garden notes

A beautiful clear fall day in the garden.

My mom says there are frost warnings for her area tonight. So early! She lives 50 miles northeast of me. Temperatures in my garden are predicted to go down to 42*F tonight. No frost, but chilly. I’ll have to remember that frosts are just around the corner.

I started cleaning out the garden today. Pulled my butternut squash and melon vines. (I have to remember to post photos of the nice watermelon I picked a couple days ago!) This opened up a whole section of the garden that I haven’t been able to walk in most of the summer. So I weeded that area and generally tidied up.

The tomato disposal continue to bother me. I have a “blight bag” in the plot - a big plastic bag where all the late blight contaminated waste goes. (I notice these bags in almost every plot now.) But its overfull now. I’ll need to separate into several bags. And the plants I never took down will need several more bags. Then, I wonder, should all the eggplant and pepper debris get bagged in plastic too since these have shown some late blight symptoms? And ALL this transported to my house and put out with the trash? I’ve decided not to plant any solanacea in the plot next year. All tomatoes/potatoes/eggplants/peppers will go next to my house and give the plot a break. I’d really like to just dig the blight debris into the soil.

My harvest included about 20 onions - some big, some tiny. Purples and yellows, grown from seed. Also one eggplant (accidentally broken off), several summer squash, a couple peppers, and a big handful of small broccoli shoots.

I’m looking forward to digging my sweet potatoes soon. Just one plant, but its grown well. I wonder what’s down there.

I also need to dig the rest of my regular potatoes. I only dug about 1/4 of my crop when I cut down the plants mid summer. I do love a day of digging in the dirt.

I continue to try to teach Skippy “No Bark”. The garden plots are lovely and quiet, and it never fails that Skippy is sleeping, I’m weeding, and someone quietly walks by in the path enjoying the day and surprises Skippy. Skippy wakes up suddenly barking like crazy. Someone will have a heart attack outside my plot soon. I suppose I should leash him at far end.